15 Cube Build

[seand]

Here we go...

I was originally planning to fix up my old Oceanic 30 cube, but forgot that I loaned it to my cousin. The other day I was at TAT's in Thousand Oaks and couldn't resist the rimless Aqua Japan 15 Cube. The had a package deal on the tank & stand with a CF light, some bio media and a small Rio pump. I traded the CF for one of the cheap Wave Point LED clamp on fixtures. I also got some salt mix and live sand. I'm digging the rimless.

Today I swung by Vivid and got some live rock. The flow from the Rio was really low, so I also upgraded the pump to a Maxijet 1200. The rock was submerged at Vivid, so hopefully the tank will be cycled by the MASVC swap so I can get a few corals to start. The rock has lots of little nooks to place frags, so it has decent aqua-scaping potential.

I have a 50W heater and a timer for the lamp. I need a GFCI to plug the power bar into. I'm planning on keeping it really simple and just to water changes fairly frequently. I may convert one of the back chambers into a small refugium to grow some cheato. We'll see how the evaporation goes. If needed, I may get and auto top off, but I'm hoping to avoid it. Eventually I'll probably get a nicer LED or mod the wave point into a suspended pendant.

For corals, I'm currently planning some choice Zoanthids, Paly's, Ricordea and a nice Frogspawn (one of my favorite corals). For fish, I'm thinking a pair of ocellaris clowns, rainford gobys or fire fish... we'll see as time goes by, I'll be taking it slow.

It'll be fun. It's my first nano, so if anyone has any good advice, please chime in. This should be a fun build.

-Sean

 

[Reefomeez]

Sweet rocks! Add a frozen shrimp to get it cycling and maybe get some bacteria in a bottle. That should do it.

 

[nl5882]

Nice!!!

 

[OBEYtheFish]

Any updates?

 

[seand]

Gosh, I forgot about this thread. I'll update tonight!

 

[AIMRob]

Gosh, I forgot about this thread. I'll update tonight!

Should be some awesome progress, looking forward to the update.

 

[seand]

GSP's that started as 1 small frag

Pink Palys

Hammer

Orange Zoas

I never remember the trade names, but here are some more Zoas.

And more that I don't remember the names of...

Some standard green polyps

Green & Purple chalice

Crappy whole tank shot with reflections

and finally, the crappy skimmer that I hang on once a week for a few hours to pull the goo out of the water.

So I'm finding that Nano's aren't really my thing.

Too much fluctuation. My old 800+ gallon system with a 400 gallon display was rock solid. You could let 10-20 gallons of water evaporate and salinity was barely affected. With this little tank, I need to stay on top of the water level all the time. The stand is a bit too small to fit things like a reservoir for ATO

Also, this tank had slots at the bottom and top of the "inlet" chamber. I covered the bottom slots so the top could act like an overflow, but I still get too much gunk accumulating on the water surface. The rear filter area is kinda small, so I can't fit a larger pump (I've tried), so I don't get enough turnover to really surface skim the water.

My other issue is actual protein skimming... I have a HOB Coralife Super Skimmer, but it's so big relative to the tank that I can only hang it on the side. So, I only do that on weekends (like right now).

I intentionally stocked some easy corals, but I'm continually surprised by the robustness of these corals. I've lost a clownfish (still have 1), a few shrimp and some snails, but these corals keep hanging on, and some are thriving. My hammer was originally a 12 head colony. Now, (after that picture) there are only 2 of the original heads left, but darn near 100 small heads growing.

 

[seand]

So, enough complaining about my nano... very soon I'll be getting a short 90 gallon (48x24x18 tall) with external overflow, and all the equipment I need from a buddy at work.

I'm actually buying a huge 300 from him, but that'll be for some freshwater fish... I don't want the electric bill that would go with the correct lighting and flow for that tank!